A form took shape in front of her. “Why are you still out here?” her mate growled.
“I wasn’t leaving to wring my hands in the castle. You’re bleeding—” She reached up and swiped his brow, but the wound had closed. “Ohhh. You’re healed.”
“Got hit by the debris beneath the sea.” He brushed it off, but a smile tugged his mouth. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing.”
“I’m glad you’re not bleeding any longer. God knows I’ve seen you badly injured enough times to worry. And don’t tell me you’re immortal. I know that, and I don’t care. I don’t like you bleeding at all.” She glared at him.
He dragged her close and just hugged her. “I’m okay, my mate.”
Expelling a deep breath, she pulled back, her mind finally tracking. “Is everything okay with the island?”
“We won’t lose Akkeris. Though it has split in two, it still stands. The denizens can take hope in that. However, it isn’t habitable for now.” He glanced at her, his expression reverent. “It’s all because of you. If you hadn’t come here again, hadn’t demanded tracking the pull you felt, we would have never discovered my sire or saved this island.”
The first drops of rain fell, and a sharp piercing sting nettled her arm. “Ouch, that hurt—” She glanced skyward.
“No!” Aerén yanked her to his chest. “Don’t look up. We need to get out of here before all hell breaks loose.” He dematerialized them back to the castle, reforming them in a study she hadn’t seen yet. She frowned at the tiny blood smears dotting her skin and likely her face. “What was that?”
“Rain and ice splinters.” He gently stroked her arm with the blood smears and the scratches healed. “Soon, the rain will change to needles of ice. Not good to be caught in this shower.”
Leya looked out through the glass door as she rubbed her arms, watching the falling slivers of ice. Some crashed on the terrace and lay there. It took a while before they melted. “Your world is dangerous.”
“Indeed.” His palm stroked her back. “Once, eons ago, it was beautiful, a paradise. But when one has everything, they always seek more, and discord arises. However, nature will not be beaten. She will claim back what was once given freely. It’s all about balance.”
“Like Earth,” Leya murmured. “It’s in the throes of Mother Nature retaliating. We don’t treat our world with the reverence and respect it deserves.”
He lightly touched her mouth, healing the cut on her lower lip. A surge of warmth and love flooded her, and she rubbed her chest.
“What?” he asked her.
Her brow furrowed. How to explain this flow of lightness within her? She shook her head. “I didn’t think I would ever experience a love like this, a love that makes me feel…”
“Feel what?” he asked softly, his gaze skimming her face.
She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. It feels like I’m floating…wrapped in happiness, and nothing can ever part us…” Her chest squeezed.
His brow furrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“Unless you meet your destined one,” she grumped. After all, she would live a long life now, sothatwas bound to happen.
A smile ghosted his mouth. “Actually, I already did. It’s why I sought you out earlier at the cliffs.”
Everything within her tensed. “What?” she breathed. “You-you have? Who?”
Nothing showed in his expression. “You know her.”
She did?
“Hana,” she whispered.
He shook his head.
Oh. One of his people, then?
Her stomach heaved, then she stilled. He didn’t look upset, and considering how furious he’d been when she’d broken up with him… She narrowed her eyes, wanted to yell at him to tell her. Instead, she stepped back, folded her arms over her chest, and waited.
He studied her for several seconds. “Aren’t you curious as to who it is?”
Well, she could be a hardass too. “Why? For you to tell me more about this person you suddenly want now, because she’s your destined?”
